Colloquium Blog

I am currently in London on vacation and while walking through the city I made some interesting observations. First, the Thames river is disgusting! There is so much litter that they have floating contraptions with fence like bars that sit partially above and below the water to catch some of the litter. It is only about 4 or 5 feet across so it has a very minor effect but I suppose catching some of the litter is better than none at all. Second, while sight seeing a read a sign explaining that a beautiful old statue was being destroyed by the nearby round about because of the pollution from the tons of cars going by. Lastly, almost everyone that I have seen so far in London smokes. As a result there are tons of cigarette butts on the ground. This is not only gross but I learned at the Naples conservancy that a cigarette butt will not degrade for 5 years. So all of those cigarette butts will still be around somewhere for the next 5 years. They also probably get into the waterways and other unwanted places. You would think that as an island-yes a very big island but still an island, that they would try and take care of their environment a little more because if they destroy this environment, they will no longer have a place to inhabit.